My first experience with Japan was through food, swallowing a sachet of wasabi whole on a JAL flight thinking it was a mint. This was on my first flight to Japan at the start of the Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme. The welcome dinner upon arrival in Numazu was at a sushi restaurant, so I was ready.

My motto is not a phrase, but a prose poem. I read “Desiderata” by Max Ehrmann regularly — it has always really resonated with me and I encourage my teams to read it. It is posted on the wall in our office.

Being part of a successful startup (Pathways) from day one, helping to build the business to over 100 employees in the Asia-Pacific region and now establishing a new division at RGF from the ground up are some of my biggest achievements so far.

Regarding my career, my goal is pretty clear; I would like to help RGF Professional Recruitment become the No. 1 bilingual recruitment company in Tokyo. On a personal note, I would like to run a sub-4-hour marathon.

Simple — treat people as you expect to be treated. There will always be frustrations working as a foreigner in any country, but the positives outweigh the negatives. Focus on the positives. Tokyo is a great place to work with lots of opportunities; anything is possible with the right mindset and discipline. Listen to people, smile and don’t take yourself too seriously.